The 16th Street Baptist Church: Symbol of the Civil Rights Movement

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The 16th Street Baptist Church: Symbol of the Civil Rights Movement

This lesson is designed to be used in conjunction with the reading of Martin Luther King Junior’s book Why We Can’t Wait as well the reading of his speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” The main learning objective is to understand how the national landmark - the 16th Street Baptist Church - influenced the Civil Rights Movement, and how its physical space creates an opportunity to understand how choices pertaining to geographical locations influence history. 

Big Ideas: Physical space choices influence world events in unexpected ways, sometimes tragically, sometimes positively.  This choice by Dr. King, Fred Shuttlesworth and others, in the case of the 16th Street Baptist Church, as a place to hold meetings pertaining to the Civil Rights Movement, significantly led to events that impacted the Civil Rights movement at large. 

 

Location

Birmingham , AL

Type of Landmark

Building

Topics

20th century
Arts and Culture
Civil Rights

Learning Objectives

  • Students will understand the physical space as it impacts history and historical movements.

Materials

Suggested Instructional Procedures

  1. The previous day students were divided into groups and given the Philadelphia Inquirer report of the bombing that occurred on September 14, 1963 at the 16th Street Baptist Church as well as the nomination description of the site.to read.  They also will have been given two questions to answer on their own, as best they can, according to their understanding of the events.
  2.  At the beginning of class, the teacher will recap the events that are described in the newspaper and show the picture of the 16th Baptist Church
  3. The teacher will then read Dr. King’s description of the event as he described it in the speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”
  4. Following the introduction of the landmark description, students will divide in groups to compare and discuss their answers to the questions given.  Students are to use their understanding of the incident based on their reading of the book Why We Can’t Wait by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,, the newspaper article,and the historic landmark description  as well as the excerpt from Dr. King’s speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” where he specifically references the bombing.
  5. After giving students 10 minutes to discuss their findings, each group will be given a piece of butcher paper and a marker to answer the questions given as a group for the class.

 EACH GROUP WILL BE GIVEN THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS AND WILL BE ASKED TO PRESENT THEIR ANSWERS TO THE CLASS.

GROUP 1- What was happening in Birmingham in September of 1963?  Why were people interested in meeting at the 16th Street Baptist Church according to our readings?

GROUP 2- Why did Fred Shuttlesworth and other civil rights leaders choose this particular church for their events and why might they have made that choice?  What considerations do you think were made in making this decision?

GROUP 3- How does the fact that this building is a church make it significant? How did this choice affect the course of events?  What happened?

GROUP 4- What has happened at this location since?  What else is in the neighborhood of the 16th Street Baptist Church?  How did this affect the Civil Rights Movement?

GROUP 5- How was Martin Luther King Jr.’s life impacted by this event and what other events related to the Civil Rights’ Movement connect to this landmark?  Who else was impacted by this event? (This group should be given the newspaper article taken from the Jewish Journal dated September 27, 1963.)

  1. Students will come to the front of the class and present their butcher paper responses to the class and present the class the opportunity to agree, disagree or qualify their answers.
  2. As the class participates in the discussion, one member of the group will be allowed to modify their butcher paper, depending on changes in opinions based on the discussion from the class at large.

End of Lesson Assessment

Students will be graded based on their responses to the questions submitted on the butcher paper.

Rubric:

  1. Clarity of expression on the butcher paper (25%)
  2. Accuracy of response as based on the documents (25%)
  3. Clarity in oral expression during presentation (25%)
  4. Ability to incorporate all members of the group into the research, discussion and presentation (25%)